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Hi all

I am moving to Oz soon and will be hiring a car. Can anybody tell me if there are any rules that kids under a certain age must be in a child booster seat.

Many thanks

Steve

WBB

god you are prepared, the thought had not crossed my mind, sorry i cannot help with the answer but i personally would not risk my kids with some of the nutters on australian roads, better safe than sorry.

philj6969

Hi,

I have had a quick look at the subject of car seats, in Queensland its any child under six. You best have a deeper look for yourself though, as there are big fines for doing it wrong.

Phil.

steandleigh

Hi,

we went to oz this summer for our fact finding trip and we went to Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne. We ahd to have a full baby seat for our 2 yr old and a booster seat for our 4 year old. So in QLD and VIC they are compulsory and if you get pulled over by a cop, you will get a HUGE fine if your kids aren't properly restrained (!). We hired a 7 seater Toyota Tarago each place we went and you pick up the seats from the desk when you go to pick up your vehcle. there was a modest charge for the hire of them - $12 per week - I think.

Hope this helps.

dotty

With any question go to the search box at the top of the page.

Just type in your subject. Cars seats for example will bring up dozens of posts and links on the subject.

tinaj

Out of interest was the Booster seat similar to our Booster seats or were they more of a closed in seat? I have a 4-yr old who I assume will need one, what do I do with the 2 new ones that I have over here?!

steandleigh

Booster seat was same as here - just put it on the main seat, child plonks its botty on it and you use the regular car seat belt to strap them in. I took one of those soft wrap arounds that you can buy to stop the belt chaffing his neck.

lynnj

When we went to Perth last year i had real hassle trying to get booster seats out of hertz for my kids who were 5 and 4 at the time, i had pre booked them but hertz sais because of their ages they didnt think we'd bother with them

Eventually had to wait an hour in the airport car park while they sent someone to their downtown office to get them, but they were worth waiting for big comfy padded things with head protection bits, still held in using the seat belt round the seat and the child but they loked pure luxury compared to the things you get here.

Oh by the way my cousin also suggested we went on a 2 hour drive down the coast all in one car with one of the kids on our knee:scared: :scared: although it is said the penalties if stopped by the police are high (although not as high as having a crash with an unrestrained child) we saw loads of people driving with their kids standing up in the back, it makes me feel sick just to see it.

Lynn

tinaj

Thanks for your responses, I think I will take my 2 seats with me then,as we will be driving a bit in the States first so we can save a bit of money by bringing our own.

If they don't fit Aus requirements we can always replace them a few weeks after we get to Oz.

philj6969

Also take care if you are taking yours over as the safety standards are different, they dont recognise our "kite mark" or the "CE" symbol, motorbike helmets from here are not legal there, and the same applies to car booster seats.

Phil.

bovis

We moved out a few months back and brought our booster seat and baby car seat with us, wrapped the booster seat in black bag, delighted we did so as had to buy two cars so only had to buy one set of seats out here. Cost of baby seat was 300 dollars and booster about 65 dollars.